Ottawa's 2016-17 basketball season quite likely its best ever

Several teams, players and coaches moved the ball up the court to close out the 20th century, but the players who have carried the load for the past 17 years have brought Ottawa basketball to slam-dunking, rim-rocking heights.

During the past five decades, basketball has emerged, developed and finally exploded into one of Ottawa’s most successful sports.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Ottawa Rookies competitive girls’ program won 11 Ontario titles and sent Donna Hobin and Andrea Blackwell to Canadian Olympic teams. Lisgar Collegiate Institute and Woodroffe High School won respective boys’ and girls’ Ontario championships.

Bell High School’s Chris Jonsson was a highly recruited player and became one of the first from the area to receive a full NCAA athletic scholarship. The list of star players before and after him included Pat Stoqua, Tom Cholock, Shawn, Janet and Carolyn Swords, and Deb Huband, who later became an accomplished coach, just like Jack Donohue, John Scobie and Hazel Miner.

These are just a few of the teams, players and coaches who moved the ball up the court to close out the 20th century, but the players who have carried the load for the past 17 years have brought Ottawa basketball to slam-dunking, rim-rocking heights.

Here’s a quick sample of success stories since 2000 before we put the magnifying glass on 2016-17, perhaps Ottawa’s greatest basketball season.

Emmanuel Owootoah of the Carleton Ravens poses with the W.P. McGee Trophy after his team collected the Canadian university championship for the 13th time in 15 years in Halifax, capped by a victory against the Ryerson Rams in the March 12 final. Darren Calabrese/THE CANADIAN PRESSDarren Calabrese /
CP

· Carleton University men’s basketball team has won a phenomenal 13 of the past 15 U Sport (formerly Canadian Interuniversity Sport) championships. The University of Ottawa men have grabbed two silver and one bronze at nationals, while uOttawa women earned two Canadian championship bronze medals and Carleton women have earned one;

· Algonquin College won four Ontario women’s titles and a national silver, while the Thunder men’s squad picked up silver and bronze medals at Canadian college championships and one Ontario pennant;

· Ottawa high school teams have stormed to seven girls’ and five boys’ OFSAA championships in A, AA or AAA divisions;

· Olivier Hanlon of Gatineau became the first player from the national capital region to be selected in the NBA draft in 2015.

Dozens more men and women have played pro ball around the world or have been selected to represent Canada internationally, like Courtnay Pilypaitis for the 2012 Olympic women’s team. Coaches Dave Smart and Dave DeAveiro also have received national team assignments.

So maybe it’s not that surprising to learn 2016-17 can be viewed as possibly the best season on record for Ottawa teams.

Carleton women’s team members celebrate a bronze-medal victory in the CIS championship tournament at Victoria on March 12. Chad Hipolito/THE CANADIAN PRESSCHAD HIPOLITO /
CP

In a nutshell, here’s the evidence: Carleton won the U Sport men’s national championship, its seventh in a row and 13th overall; Carleton women earned that program’s earned its first U Sport medal (a bronze); the first-year Canada Topfight Academy team captured the National Preparatory Association gold medal; and Ashbury College claimed the OFSAA boys’ AA title.

If that wasn’t enough, Ottawa teams found great success at this spring’s Ontario Cup provincial age-group championships, winning 29 medals: six gold, six silver and eight bronze in boys’ U10 to U19 divisions; and one gold, five silver and three bronze from girls’ competitions.

The final weekend proved to be a real celebration of Ottawa basketball, when Ottawa Next Level of the Kanata Youth Basketball Association defeated Ottawa Elite of the Ottawa Youth Basketball Academy 75-65 to win the program’s first U19 boys’ junior, division 1 crown. Division 1 championships involve the top eight club teams in the province.

Head coach Andrew DiMillo wasn’t thinking about a championship season when he started assembling his U19 Next Level squad. After winning the Ontario Cup U17 boys’ juvenile division 2 gold medal in 2016, eight key players graduated, which left him on shaky ground to form the U19 team.

“There was a lot of uncertainly. I was concerned there would a be dropoff,” he said.

Fortunately, DiMillo had more than 75 players attend tryouts in September and he acknowledged there was “a ton of talent in the gym.” During the team’s pre-season (September through February), Next Level won four tournaments, but also had several disappointments, including losing the Gloucester Wolverines final to rival Ottawa Elite.

Once the Ontario Basketball Association season started in March and the team was familiar with its revamped defensive system under new assistant coach Cliff Quain, U19 Next Level qualified for the eight-team, Ontario Cup, division 1 championship.

In the round-robin, Next Level defeated Scarborough Blues Woodburn 64-62 and Mississauga Jayhawks Nava 68-58, while losing to Belleville Spirits 75-67. By winning its final pool game over Mississauga and with Belleville being upset by Scarborough, Next Level advanced to the final against Ottawa Elite, who had been 3-0 in the other pool.

In the final, MVP Ali Sow counted 29 points as an uplifted and confident Next Level team defeated Ottawa Elite 75-65.

“We built chemistry early on … and that comes from playing a lot,” DiMillo said. “We played more than 80 games and they got better through playing and learning to work with each other.

“There was a good combination of players, good support of the program and it came together when it had to. The players did it all.”

• Mother Teresa had to settle for silver in the OFSAA girls’ AAA soccer championship, losing 2-0 to Our Lady of Mount Carmel in the final. Mother Teresa entered the final with five wins and one tie. In the OFSAA boys’ AA soccer championship, Franco Cité defeated Iona 3-2 for bronze. Ashbury was the silver medallist in OFSAA boys’ A/AA rugby at Twin Elm Rugby Park, while Brookfield earned the antique bronze for fourth place.

• Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame member Bob Rathwell is recognized as one of the pillars of the Ottawa soccer scene. But now the former president of the Eastern Ontario District Soccer Association, who passed away in 2008, is being promoted for a city honour by the club he founded and served as president, the Lynwood Centennials Soccer Club. To help celebrate the club’s 50th anniversary, president Mark Simonson has approached the city to rename Valleystream field on Richmond Road in Rathwell’s honour. The idea has received an early positive response, but the process needs community endorsements to rename the field Bob Rathwell Memorial Park. Emails commenting on Rathwell’s contributions to Ottawa soccer can be sent to Simonson at president@lynwoodsc.ca or Dawn Dinsdale at admin@lynwoodsc.ca

• Competing in his first World Masters Games recently in Auckland, Ottawa’s Emil Muller surprised himself by winning gold medals in the men’s 80-84 age group in hammer throw (34.56 metres) and weight throw (13.31 metres). At 82, the member of the Canadian Masters Athletics Hall of Fame is a hard worker, even to the point of training outdoors twice a week in the winter and shovelling clear the throwing circle at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

• Two-time Olympian Karine Thomas of Gatineau has retired after a 10-year national-team career in synchronized swimming, which included a fourth in team at the 2012 London Summer Games and a seventh in duet with Jacqueline Simoneau at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. Thomas was thrilled with her second-place duet showing at the 2017 Canadian Open and felt it was the right time to end her synchro career. Thomas and Simoneau had previously placed second in the Japan Open.

• Former board member Bob Wilson has returned to become the new chair of the Ottawa Sports Awards committee, replacing Doug Scorrar, who stepped down in February, after 10 years … St. Patrick’s High School boys’ basketball product Marial Shayok has transferred to Iowa State University after three years at University of Virginia. He must sit out the 2017-18 season before playing his senior campaign for the Cyclones … After winning four CIS men’s basketball titles with the Carleton Ravens, Aaron Doornekamp played a team-high 30 minutes as host Iberostar Tenerife of Spain defeated Bavit of Turkey 63-59 to win the European Basketball Champions League final for the first time. He also contributed three points, five rebounds and two assists … Robbi Weldon of Ottawa and pilot Audrey Lemieux of Montreal won two medals in the women’s tandem B class at the UCI para World Cup road races at Maniago, Italy: silver in the time trial and bronze in the road race … Rideau View’s Justin deVroome won all four of his matches by a score of 1 up, including the final over Nicholas Brisebois of Eagle Creek, to claim the men’s title at the Ottawa Valley Golf Association match-play championship. In the inaugural OVGA women’s championship, Lise Jubinville of Carleton turned back Diane Dolan of Hylands in 20 holes.

If you know an athlete, coach, team or builder you consider a high achiever, contact Martin Cleary at martincleary51@gmail.com.

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